Portrait of a Young Man America, 20th century

Portrait of a Young Man

c. 1931–37

James Van Der Zee

(American, 1886–1983)

America, 20th century

gelatin silver print

Image: 14.1 x 11.3 cm (5 9/16 x 4 7/16 in.); Matted: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14 in.)

The Jane B. Tripp Charitable Lead Annuity Trust 1999.57

Location: not on view

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Description

Commercial portrait photographers create images of people as they wish to be remembered. Most of the clients visiting Van Der Zee’s Harlem studio were upper- and middle-class African Americans who arrived in their most elegant clothing. The identities of the sitters in his two portraits on view here are unknown, but we can be confident that he made the movie-star-handsome young man and the sweetly smiling young lady look their best. Van Der Zee did not gain recognition from the art world until age 82 when his photographs were included in a 1969 exhibition about Harlem at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.